Advani did little to help Ram Mandir movement: Govindacharya

New Delhi, Dec 06:

Former BJP ideologue K N Govindacharya on Saturday accused his one-time party colleague L K Advani of doing little when he was Home Minister to benefit the 'Ram Mandir movement'.

"While the Babri masjid premises were under the supervision of the Home Ministry, he (Advani) did not accede to even minor requests from devotees to put the barricade of the sanctum sanctorum at its place in keeping with Supreme Court orders," Govindacharya said on the 16th anniversary of the Babri mosque demolition today.

Alleging that Advani did little to benefit the movement that catapulted the party to power, Govindacharya charged him with preventing the transition from 'Ram Mandir' to 'Ram Rajya'.

"Ashok Singhal's arrest was also condemnable," he said, adding that, "I do not feel joy nor gloom over the day. It is a joyful day for those who made the most of it and a gloomy day for others who felt deprived of a pro-poor Ram Rajya there after as the BJP moved away from the cause."

However, this anniversary of Babri masjid demolition was different with the Bajrang Dal and Vishwa Hindu Parishad, which celebrate the day as "Shaurya Divas" (gallantry day) every year, using the occasion to take a pledge to root out terrorism.

"We are replacing our celebrations with pledges against terrorism and organising training camps to brief cadres about how to prevent and deal with terror attacks," said Bajrang Dal's National Convenor Prakash Sharma.

The RSS also kept a low profile on the occasion and held no local or national functions.

Bureau Report
Your comment(s) on this article
Dear Govindacharya, What Advani has done or not done for the Ram Mandir movement is for the progenitor of the Ram Mandir movement - the RSS - to evaluate. Your comments are not credible because it is very clear you are only seeking political mileage by your attacks on Advani. -K.Venugopal - Mumbai

If Muslims can remember for 16 years! the demolition of the dysdunctional Babri ruin, then Hindus too should every year remember the demolition of their main temples like Somnath, Ayodhya, Kashi etc. Is a ruin like mosque more worth than the ages old Hindu temples? -raghuveer -

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